Win a blast for Sox
Mookie’s slam helps rout Yanks
When Mookie Betts blasted one over the Green Monster to put the Red Sox up 14-1 on the New York Yankees in the sixth inning last night, he crossed home plate for the fifth time.
It was the first time in his career he scored five runs, the first time this year he was 4-for-4, and it all began in October, soon after the Red Sox hired Alex Cora as manager.
The first punch of the “Renewed Rivalry” was an uppercut 14-1 victory by Cora’s Red Sox that connected square on the chin of Aaron Boone’s Yankees.
Betts did it all out of the leadoff spot, where Cora had planned on hitting the former MVP runner-up since the moment he began thinking about taking the reins as the team’s new skipper.
“We’ve been talking about this since November,” Cora said. “If you’re facing us, you have to execute from Pitch 1. That’s what I wanted. That’s why it’s the first thing that came to mind, my plan. He’s going to lead off. I saw it firsthand last year. I know it works. He accepted the challenge, and he’s doing an outstanding job.”
Remarkable as it is, the players in the home dugout were almost the same as those who sat on those benches last year. The lineup wasn’t much different. J.D. Martinez played last night. Xander Bogaerts is hurt. Otherwise, same group.
But the Cora-led Red Sox, the ones who bowed out in the first round of the Division Series a year ago, gave no quarter as they steamrolled the Boone-led Yankees, the group that came within a game of the World Series last year and then added Giancarlo Stanton to the lineup.
Betts got the Sox going from the first inning, when he started with a double and scored on a hit from Hanley Ramirez.
Betts saw 10 strikes in his five times to the plate. He swung at seven. Four went for hits, including two doubles and a homer.
The aggression is what Cora has preached to Betts since October.
“I think it was just right after he got hired,” Betts said. “I know he made his calls and called everybody, that was one of the first things he said to me. He must really pay attention to detail if it was one of the first things he said.
“He showed me numbers of my swing percentages. It’s not necessarily scouting reports. It’s just swing more often.”
The Yankees’ swings were less productive.
Stanton struck out his first two times to bat on just seven pitches, though he finished 2-for-4. His teammates played sloppy defense, with two registered errors, and on the mound they issued a remarkable seven free passes.
It was ace vs. ace, Chris Sale vs. Luis Severino, Cy Young Award runner-up vs. the third-place finisher.
Sale came out slinging mid-90s heaters without fear, throwing 36 of his first 46 pitches for strikes through the first three innings.
Severino had nothing working. The first three batters he faced — Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Ramirez — all reached base and the Sox were up 1-0 in a heartbeat.
In the second inning, Aaron Judge fumbled Benintendi’s triple in the right-field corner as fans hovered over the wall and celebrated just inches away. And again Ramirez picked up an RBI. The Sox were up 4-0 after two.
It’s been a near-perfect 10-game beginning for Cora, who has led his team to nine straight wins after they coughed up the Opening Day game against the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s the best start in franchise history.
Sale said the hot start shows how confident the Red Sox are playing.
“I think (Cora) has a lot to do with that,” Sale said. “Look at him in the dugout and he’s calm. No panic.”
The only Yankees’ run came off a misplaced fastball from Sale that was demolished to deep center by Judge for his third homer of the season in the fifth inning.
The Yankees won 11-of-19 against the Sox last year but they’re now 0-1 against them in 2018.